Snapedom

Hi, Pearlette, and thanks for getting back to this point! I was not the first person, by any means, to notice the Heathcliff/Cathy parallels, which I'd actually objected to when I first read the theory. But Nemesister, over on livejournal, convinced me. She pointed out that, in "The Prince's Tale", Sev, Lily and Petunia have some of the exact same dialogue as Heathcliff, Cathy and Hindley. The same dialogue, almost word for word. Also, like Cathy, Lily comes from a higher social sphere than Sev. Her friends look down on him - also like Cathy. And, like Cathy, she throws over her childhood friend for a wealthy young man she eventually marries.

Nemesister said she thought it was Rowling's intention to rewrite Heathcliff and Cathy, but to make them both nicer and better than they were in the original. I'm honestly not sure what her intention was. But I certainly agree with you that Severus is a far better man than Heathcliff. However, the fact that she modelled him partly on Heathcliff does explain one scene that always struck me as wildly out of character - the toad poisoning. This is clearly meant to be a parallel to Heathcliff's hanging Isabella's little dog - which shows us clearly what a cruel and sadistic man he is. The toad scene just doesn't work the same way. It seems to me to be over the top and therefore hard to believe - and, in any case, unlike Heathcliff, who actually kills the dog, Severus does Trevor the toad no harm.

Oh - I don't know if it is proof that Rowling intended to parallel these characters, but she does list Wuthering Heights as one of the books that influenced her.